The present invention relates to a detergent composition harmless to human body and animals. More particularly, this invention in its broadest context encompasses detergent compositions comprising sodium chloride, organic alcohol, coconut oil and water.
Pesticides are broadly used in the cultivation of vegetables and fruit to prevent these crops from being damaged by pests, blights or other plant diseases. Most pesticides are hazardous to human body and animals and as a consequence these crops can be harvested only after a safety period during which the toxicity of the pesticides decreases to a level meeting the safety requirement set up by the public health authorities. However, due to carelessness in the operation of harvesting the plants or applying the pesticides, very frequently residual toxicities are nevertheless found on the surface of the vegetables or fruit sold on the market. It is therefore still necessary to clean vegetables or fruits to remove residual toxicity before ingesting.
In the transportation of foods, bacteria and fungi unavoidably adhere to and more seriously propagate on the surface of the foods. Such bacteria and fungi will adversely affect the health of human body or animals and therefore should also be removed from the surface of foods before ingesting.
It has long been practiced to wash foods such as vegetables and fruit with water or saline solution to remove said residual toxicity, bacteria and fungi but the results have always been unsatisfactory.
Commercially available detergents for cleaning dishes consisting mainly of petrochemical surfactants such as alkyl-benzene sulfonate surfactant can also effectively remove pollutants such as residual toxicities, bacteria and fungi from the surface of foods. However, such detergents tend to adhere to the surface of foods and are not easily removed with water. Furthermore, such detergents per se will cause health problem if they enter human or animal bodies and result in a secondary pollution which refrains them from being used as a suitable detergent for cleaning foods.
It has been attempted to use detergent compositions consisting of coconut oil alcohol and coconut oil aliphatic acid derivatives in cleaning foods. Such detergent compositions do have a lower toxicity than petrochemical detergent compositions and are harmless to human skin. However, it has been found that such detergents will still notably affect the health of human body or animal adversely if eaten and thus is not suitable for use in cleaning foods.